Eliminating secondary tapping of high volume stampings by utilizing In-die tapping is a pretty easy decision to make. What about those applications that are low to medium volume and may be borderline on cost justification? There may be some other factors to consider that make secondary tapping even more expensive or inconvenient for specific applications.
Handling and fixturing round, small or cumbersome parts can be quite challenging for some secondary tapping operations. For example, a simple round washer with one tapped hole may seem simple enough. That is until you have to hold a round part in a fixture to try to keep it from turning while tapping and not distort the threads or damage the part. Then there is the issue with very tiny parts or very large cumbersome parts. It will take either a very patient or very strong operator to load these parts into the appropriate fixtures. The frustration with dealing with these scenarios leads to increased costs and lower efficiencies.
The beauty of In-die tapping is that any part shape is already captured in the strip. There is no need to do anything different than what would normally be done in any progressive die. These round, small and hard to fixture parts come off the press complete with tapped holes and are ready to ship.
We look forward to working with you on your tapping projects. Please visit us at http://www.hutchisontool.com/ or call us at 800-332-3230.
Tom Hutchison
President
